Published
Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 19:51
- YACHT, Riobamba, The Black Madonna, Lovefingers and more have signed on to avoid public partnerships with the tech giant.
An open letter to Amazon has been signed by more than 700 artists.
The letter outlines Amazon's involvement with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and other organizations that it says "commit human rights abuses." It includes a pledge to avoid any kind of partnership with Amazon, or performance at any Amazon-sponsored event, until they terminate their contracts with the military and government organizations, stop providing cloud services and apps used by immigration enforcement and cease projects that "encourage racial profiling and discrimination."
"We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers, and local economies," the letter adds. "We call on all artists who believe in basic rights and human dignity to join us."
Among the artists that have signed the pledge are The Black Madonna (who dropped out of the Intersect festival this past weekend after learning it was sponsored by Amazon Web Services), YACHT, Riobamba (who is holding a protest rave against ICE), Kelly Moran, Lovefingers, Tash LC, Shamir, Circuit Des Yeux, Deerhoof, Zola Jesus, Ricky Eat Acid and more.
Read the letter here.
This post has been updated to reflect new artist signatures.